Chasing Cars
by Cherished Dreams
Summary: One faithful day, a car accident starts off the series of events that changes Bella Swan's quiet life upside down. AU fic - All human.
1. Collision

**Chasing Cars**

By Ani aka Cherished Dreams

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Stephenie Meyer's characters. I own the plot though! Fic name from Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.

* * *

_**Chapter One - Collision  
**_

"G'Morning Bella! I'm back early!" Alice, my bright eyed roomie says as she walks through our front door and spies me in the kitchen, closing my lunch bag. She's back early from a business trip.

She is royally dubbed, Miss Pixie, by the '_coven_' as she calls them. By that, she means, the other people inhabiting our peaceful little apartment block. Taking in her physical features, you'd see why really quickly. She measures only four feet something inches, not including the added length of her short black spiky hair, or the designer heels she wears.

She loves to dress in only the most fashionable, trendy pieces known to mankind, and I sometimes can't help but wonder where she gets all the money to pay for it all. When I asked her once, all I got was a cryptic, "You've got to know where to put your money Bells." I swear I've spied at least ten foreign labels while doing our laundry. All that aside, she's one of my strongest, most loving, caring, not to mention - protective friends.

One glance at the clock and I know I'm right on time to leave for work. On mornings like these, she parks her Turbo (that's a _Porche Turbo 911_ - like I said - no idea where she gets her money) just behind my car (which pales greatly in comparision), in the underground communal car park. Each apartment gets only one space. Fortunately enough, apartment #11's (which has been rumoured to have been let out recently) car space is still empty.

"Move my car, yar?" I nod absently in reply.

We don't like to take up the space, in case the new renter moves in while we're out, and take turns moving each other's car into our space and move them out of the way whenever we can.

She heads into the kitchen and her face sparks up when she sees the fresh platter of waffles and pancakes, I've made for her and Angela, apartment #14, who breakfasts at our place every other day. She's a shy little thing, but has been one of the nicest neighbours and friends and she even helped us move in.

Alice plants a big one on my cheek in appreciation of my hard work in the kitchen and checks my apparel before approving with a slight wrinkle of her nose and letting me leave the apartment for my day of work. I laugh at her as she critically eyes my bag – only a large leather messenger bag holding the contents of my entire life. I swear she'd find a way to throw it out, and replace it with a Gucci or something like that, if I'd let her. Unfortunately, there aren't many designer bags out there that cater for a laptop, and so she lets it slide. For now, she says. She scares me like that.

I spend an average of twenty minutes in traffic getting to work everyday and try to keep myself preoccupied yet focused on the car in front of me. Heading down the highway is always fun for me after sitting in traffic, the sudden rush of being free of the slow crawl of traffic from one of the busiest main roads heading to the heart of Seattle, going eighty miles per hour, passing the large trucks lumbering in the slower lanes.

Today however, the traffic is a little worse for wear, as the dark gray clouds above start shedding rain down to Earth at a medium setting, seemingly growing darker by the moment. When we reach the curve, the traffics back down to seventy, but it's a slow crawl again trying to turn off into the main road holding the building of my employment. If I got out of my car and walked now, I'd get there in time to still order a coffee and have about ten minutes to spare, before the office's Monday morning meeting.

As I tap my chewed up fingernails on the steering wheel, nearing the turn, I hear a sharp screech of tires behind me and my eyes widen in alarm, when I realize it's the car RIGHT behind me. I brace myself for the impact, but my feet fumble and I'm too late to step down further on my brake and the front of my car, bumps the one in front slightly from the massive impact of the car colliding with mine from behind.

Luckily the car in front, a shiny silver Volvo, 'an expensive car to bump into' I add, cringing mentally, doesn't lurch forward as much as mine and it manages to prevent the domino effect of metal collision, I'm sure would've happened. I let out a shuddering breath of relief. I check myself for any injuries. No broken bones, thank goodness. A small shaky laugh passes my lips, in triumph. No hospital trip for me today.

The driver in front, flips on his emergency lights and steps out into the rain to inspect the damage. A male, it looks like, by the height, but its starting to get darker out and harder to see with the rain pouring down around us. I gather my senses, take a deep breath and step outside with my rainbow umbrella and approach the dark figure, bending over the tail of his car.

"I'm so sorry, are you alright?" I say hurrying as fast as I possibly can towards him. Of course, I wouldn't be Isabella Swan if I didn't slip and slide a little on my way there. But I'm sure the three inch heels, I earlier deemed safe, might've also had a hand in it. Someone upstairs must be amused at seeing me 'collide', because I slip just as I near and slam straight into his straightening form, as well. Curses.

I hear a familiar, "oomph" come out from my lips; and our wobbling bodies teeter back a tiny bit from the collision. "Whoa there", he says (do I detect a slight tone of amusement?), gripping my shoulders, pushing me steadily upright again. I blink and lift my head to look at him.

"Are you alright?" I nod dumbly, rendered speechless by his smouldering green eyes. His fingers light on my shoulders, keeping me upright, don't seem to help my vocal abilities. Heat rises and I feel my cheeks fill with warm blood. I groan internally knowing I'm probably red as a tomato. He chuckles lightly, probably at what I look like at the moment. The ring of his laugh shakes me back into reality. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and turn the rainbow umbrella in my hand the right way up over us.

"I'm Bell—Isabella Swan. I'm so sorry about that. The impact from behind me was ... and I didn't get the chance to break harder and..." I try to explain, slightly rushed, and slightly shocked at it all still. He'll probably want to exchange insurance details in a moment.

He raises his cheek into what feels like a half smile, (but more of a sort of crooked grin) and replies, "Edward Cullen." His nicely angled features soon turn serious as he looks over my shoulder. "We'd better go see if he's alright don't you think?" He hesitantly grips my elbow gently and leads us past the length of my car, a slight incline (another reason why I probably slipped), and he lets go to open the small red car door, to see if the other driver is alright.

The first thing I see however is the driver's bent forward into his lightly inflated air bags. Steam starts pouring out from under his car hood at that opportune moment. I jump at the sudden sound. (Jumpy, jumpyyyy, Beeelllllaaaa.) I laugh shaken and raise a hand to my chest, heart throbbing painfully in my ribcage.

"Hey! Are you alright?" I ask, looking over the green-eyed stranger's shoulder, hoping I don't kill their eardrums from my abnormally loud and panicked voice (I think I also heard some hysteria in there too). The teenager rouses and leans back into his seat.

"I'm ... ok, I think", he lets out in a husky groan.

I'm slightly relieved until a familiar, yet stomach-turning smell reaches my nose. I don't need to see the red liquid, but I know its there – outside of its usual confines. I start swaying slightly on the spot, the rusty, salty smell allowing the sensation of nausea to run hazardously through my veins. I pull off the purple silk scarf from my neck unsteadily and try to pass it forward to the green eyed stranger to stop the blood flow with it. Blood pumps up to my brain painfully, and I know it's a start of a massive headache.

I reach out weakly, dots flashing in front of me, and my trembling hand collides with a smooth yet damp material. The last thing I see is flashing green eyes and hands reaching out towards me, before the world is extinguished of light.

* * *

"She'll be up soon."

I wince at the loud commotion going on around me, and I hear the occasional wooop of an ambulance's siren, pierce the air. I hear a sigh and I open my eyes and sit up. "You're feeling better then?" Edward says, sitting next to me, his face crumpled in concern. "If I'd known you'd bumped your head, I would've insisted you sit as I went to see how Jacob was." He sees my confused look and explains that Jacob is the other driver.

"Oh." I manage in reply. (Excellent Bella, a hit to the head and you're reduced to a blubbering idiot in front of this Adonis)

I gather myself up before explaining, "I'm not very good with blood." He chuckles at this and extends a hand to help me out of the ambulance. Once outside, I see, Jacob in another ambulance being fussed over. The police direct people around the lane a few meters back, and cars pass us slowly as drivers and passengers look out their windows to see what's caused this traffic. The EMTs give me a fresh cold disposable compress for my neck for the whiplash and an order to see my doctor should I feel anything more later on.

I call my boss, Emily and tell her what's happened and she's ordered me to take the day off at least and hangs up on me, before I can even start protesting. The police question us quickly about any details we can give about the car accident and two tow trucks come to take away the red Lancer and my car.

I assess the damage to my beloved poor little Mini Cooper. A scratch to its front, and its backside dented in, with the body crumpled. I hoped to God that he would get all better with some surgery. Edward chuckles quietly beside me slightly and I turn to him with a frown on my face. He looks back with an ashamed look on his face, probably hoping he hasn't offended me with his apparent amusement.

"I don't see how this is funny, Mr Cullen. I saved up for my baby since high school; I've only had him for three years!"

My face crumbles a little and I look away from his face and from my car hoping the sadness will wash away. I hear him sigh. "Look I have a good friend who can take care of stuff like this in a flash and quite nicely, as if you'd never gotten into an accident at all. Would you like to give him a try?"

I look back at him a little taken back by his suggestion, but tear up a little as I see my car next to him.

Jacob rushes, as fast as he can after being with the EMTs and the police, next to me and sees my watery eyes as I look at my car and apologizes with grief apparent in his voice. "I'm so sorry Isabella! I should've slowed down and I saw you but misjudged... and your car! It wouldn--" I cut him off raising my hand.

"It'll be fine. Just be a bit more careful next time ok? We could've gotten into much worse," I say in a stern yet forgiving voice. He nods, still ashamed of his actions, so I add, "And call me Bella. Isabella is too formal like and makes me sound old and I'm pretty sure you both know that I'm not." I try to joke with a small smile. I'm graced with Edward's musical tinkle of a laugh and Jacob's easy booming laugh.

"And Edward's just recommended me a good mechanic to get my baby back on the road." Jacob's face lightens up with this news, as I'd hoped, and Edward, breaks out into that crooked grin which melts me a bit. He's nice enough to call ahead to his friend and give us--me a lift there, calling in to work to take the day off. Jacob, still sorry for the accident pulls open the passenger door of Edward's car and presses me into the seat, and insists on travelling with tow trucks.

"So... what do you do Bella?" Edward asks as he pulls away from the other cars and towards his friend's garage.

I tell him about my being a small time journalist and full time university student starting my third year. The pay and the experience aside, it was good decent work with great colleagues and flexible understanding employers. He tells me about being an arts grad student, trying to finish by the end of the year.

We fall into easy conversation and soon I'm so absorbed in his deep smooth voice, I don't realize we've arrived at the garage, until he turns to me expectantly. Still a little out of it, he snickers and pushes the button to release me out of the seatbelt. My face heats up. He doesn't wait for me, jumps out of the car and, quickly walks to open my door, surprising me. I take his proffered hand and a shot of electricity flows through me at the contact of his warm skin. Its unfamiliar and startling. I wonder briefly, if he felt it too.

"Thanks!" I say, forcing myself to remove my hand from his, in case I do something utterly embarrassing (like jump into his arms). My hand tingles from the contact. He lifts his cheek into that gorgeous crooked grin again before turning and walking to the garage. A big burly man, who I immediately assume is Edward's friend, walks up to him, and rumples his hair in greeting. I can't help but bite my lip to keep my bubbling laughter in, as he swat's his friend's hand away from his hair. I quickly retrieve my bag and join them. I hear a not-so-quietly mumbled 'lucky jerk' coming from the mechanic's direction, before I slide to a stop next to them.

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**Author's Note:** Let me know what you think! :) A long first chapter to explain their meetings. I can only hope the future ones will be just as long! I'm planning for a multi-chaptered fic. Hopefully. Encourage me with your thoughts! :) Rating may go up in the future. I'm still trying to decide.


	2. Meetings

**Chasing Cars**

By Ani aka Cherished Dreams

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Stephenie Meyer's characters. I own the plot though!

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_**Chapter Two - Meetings**_

"Hold everything!" The mechanic says holding out his arms, as if to stop oncoming traffic. My eyebrows knit together, trying to remember why his booming voice seems so familiar. Out of nowhere, huge arms are wrapped around me tightly and I'm flung around in the air like a rag doll, my feet lifted clean off the floor. I'm surprised to say the least, and admittedly frightened. After a few moments, my lungs are gasping for air and an obvious cough from behind the beast latching on to me; reach my ears (which I don't doubt have turned red).

When my feet are placed safely on the floor and I regain what little balance I had to begin with, I look to find the mechanic who attacked me. "EMMETT!" A grin forms on my face, and he returns it with a grin of his own. "Look at you! This your garage now?" I ask, utterly ashamed for not having recognized him earlier. (Time to see an optometrist again Bellaa)

He answers my question by grinning even wider (if that was possible). "Look at me? Look at you! The last time I saw you Miss Isabella Swan, you were this high," his hand floating in the air near his knees, probably an accurate estimate I think drily to myself, "and," he adds, a sly grin forming on his face "you were still using a training bra." Trust Emmett to bring up something that embarrassing. Mortification steps in and my face overheats, leaving me no choice but to cover my face, as he laughs to himself.

"And, how do you know each other?" My green eyed stranger, thankfully, chooses that moment to deflect the attention off me. His calm voice calms my frayed nerves and at that I drop my hands and explain our being buddies back in high school. Emmett had come all the way from North Carolina in the middle of the school year and being the new kid in our Phys Ed class, he was paired up with me, the person people were forced to pair up with due to my unending clumsiness. I'm sure I knocked out _at least _two people that year.

I'd loved being paired up with him, and I actually passed P.E. with more than my usual borderline C minus. But more to that, he had a sweet teddy bear side to him helping me with my hand eye coordination and being the overbearingly protective older brother, that I never had.

"Now let's go see what damage you did to poor Eddie's car." Emmett reminds me. Edward scoffs at the nickname and I make a mental note not to call him this in the future. (There'll be a future?) I hear a mumbled "not that its the first time she's damaged something heavier than her" and crinkle my nose dread slithering down my back as we start moving towards the cars. Edward must think I'm a wreak. We all go around the back of his car to see his damage and I grimace slightly seeing the ugly bluish scratch on his paint job and slight dent on the body clearly for the first time.

Emmett grins, and smacks the back of the Volvo with the dirty cloth in his hands. "Nasty looking but it's fixable. I'd quote you about a grand, but only because this is a really bad car to bump into Bell." I can't believe my luck. If this had gone through my insurance, it would cost me more than a grand due to my being under twenty-four. I sneak a peek at Edward, who lifts a gives me a small corner lip lift, letting me know that he was fine with it.

"Deal! You fix it and bill me Em." I say turning to Emmett.

"Bring it back on Saturday and I'll work on it then Eddie. No use keeping it here, 'til I can get to it. I'll be fine 'til then."

The tow trucks arrive and he lets out a low whistle as he eyes zone in on the dented Mini, and the partly crumpled Mitsubishi Lancer. Jacob pays for the tow trucks for getting them both there, refusing to let me pay for the truck pulling mine.

Emmett and another mechanic move around to inspect my Mini and the Lancer before conferencing and giving us the news. He wipes his hand on a clean part of his dirty cloth, which really isn't clean at all and looks at me first. "Back is gone; it may all need to be replaced. We'll have to check if the exhaust is still ok, but I'm not sure just looking. Good thing it's the standard blue colour, coz it'd be hard to find many of the others just floating around."

His eyes wander up, and he says while thinking, "take about three weeks AT least. With shipping of parts etc. Depending... without anymore of this mess," gesturing to the still gray skies.

"The Lancer however, may need some engine repair done, radiator's gone, the front part -- hood, front body and lights, need replacing. Give or take three, maybe four weeks, again depending. I hope you've got good insurance for this bro. That or just buy a new one." He directs to Jacob, who nods miserable, as he espies, a Volkswagen beetle with a scowling lady in front.

"Here she comes" he mumbles putting his hands in his pockets, as the lady parks and heads in our direction.

"I'm so sorry for this. My little brother should've known better." She says to us, as she scowls at Jacob.

I try to smile at her and I shake her hand, as Edward tries to calm her a bit with a look in her direction. She looks at him a tad confused before putting on an award winning smile and shaking his hand warmly. I raise my eyebrow to this, Emmett rolls his eyes chuckling, walking away, and Jacob groans a bit his hand covering his face. Edward takes it in stride and assures her that it's fine.

I put a hand on his bandages and hope him to get better and he promises to clean my scarf and return it to me. They leave but not without her checking to see that her brother has gotten our contact details as well. Edward's most especially, and after they're clear out of hearing distance Emmett returns laughing having watched the whole ordeal and I can't help but join him, both of us causing Edward to flush uncomfortably at our mirth.

Edward offers me a ride home or to where I may need to go, but I refuse, not wanting to inconvenience him, gas being an expensive commodity lately. In the end after a long round of negotiation, he drops me off at the main shopping mall, where I was sure Alice would be headed for some lunch and we hang around a bit waiting for her to arrive.

He's quite comfortable to talk to even though I see that his good looks, attire and gallantry attract attention from the female population. I tease him a bit about Jacob's sister and ask him if he always use these for evil. He laughs wholeheartedly at this, and denies knowing what I mean, though I can practically see the knowing sparkle in his eye. He must keep mothers up late at night worrying about their daughters with this man.

I laugh at him, and he tells me of the various ways girls have tried to get at him. Its funny hearing a guy say these things, but I also can't help but feel disgusted at the lengths some of my gender will through to get a guy.

After twenty minutes of people watching, I see Alice head into the line for Subway. We exchange business cards and part as newly-made frie--acquaintances.

* * *

Thinking Alice would have missed Edward, a guy she would dub mouth watering eye-candy, would be like thinking Superman could die from a simple heat stroke and pointing a hair dryer at him. Unfortunately for me, she did see him, but her eyes were so wide when I made my way to stand next to her, I thought her eyes might _just_ have a chance of popping out of their sockets altogether.

"Dear-sweet--_bananas_ woman! Where did you find the eye-candy and why _why_ did you let him out of your sight?" She says, standing on her tippy-toes to grip my shoulders menacingly. I smile wryly, and look at her exasperated face, raising my hands slowly.

"Ok calm down Alice, I know what you're like."

"Damn straight. If you were going to let him go, you could've at least let him leave in my direction, and I would have done the surgaring for you!"

I roll my eyes. Of course. The lady in front of her moves away from the counter and the attendant looks at us expectantly. Alice is still staring at me and I pull her forward. This of course snaps her out of her trance and she orders for both of us. We find a quiet table and she pounds me for information then.

"Why are you not at work? Were you jigging work to be with your secret lover?"

I sigh, she was going to overreact and exaggerate. I knew her. I drop into my seat resigningly and she follows suit eager. I tell her about the accident then, the car ride and Jacob. She nods and widens her eyes but to my surprise doesn't react as badly as I initially thought. She scolds me for not focusing, and reaches over to rub the back of my neck slightly with her warm fingers feeling the tension there and promises to give me a neck rub later tonight. Then she gets down to business.

"Name." I roll my eyes at her, the second time today.

"Edward Cullen."

"Age."

"23."

"Occupation?"

"Student.. I don't know what he works as."

"Girlfriend, yes?"

I direct my famous one eyebrow standing ovation in her direction, instead of at the sandwiches situated in front of us and she shrugs.

"I suppose you guess correctly. I'm not entirely sure. Emmett did mention a 'Tanya' to which he got slapped for. Maybe? Why do you say yes?"

She frowns fearing the girly name and I bite my lip to keep myself from giggling at her silliness. "Hot girl like you in an office pencil skirt with hair like that, innocence radiating off her saying 'take me here take me now!' and he stands a feet away from you? Pur-lease, it was either gay or girlfriend. Well… even though he was already taken, he could've at least shown some kind of attraction or something."

Laughter bubbles out of me then. So much so that I had to cluch my chair to keep from falling off. She knew my views on my looks. I wasn't exactly the prettiest girl around. My plain long brown hair, often down or in a skewed ponytail (it never varied much), brown eyes almost always hidden behind glasses, pale slightly filled straight figured body was nothing compared to her vivid short black hair, bright black eyes, beautiful fair somewhat translucent skin and petite hourglass figure. She sighs resigned and uses a piece of lettuce in between her thumb and index fingers to point at me.

"You. Are. Not. Plain, Bella." She accentuates each word, with a prod of the flopping lettuce in her fingers. "Want more proof from the thousands I've already given you? Turn around." I felt partly responsible for the welfare of the piece of lettuce as it became more and more airbourne.

I turn around just to appease her, and can't help but feel my cheeks warm up when I see a passing guy in a tracksuit wink at me. Alice laughs at me knowing of my unfortunate ailment and I turn around quickly. She drops the subject smug, knowing that she'd won that round and we finish off our lunch quickly enough for her to drag me into a few stores and dress me up like a Barbie doll.

* * *

When I finally persuade Alice to go home, after begging and reminding her of parking fees (as parking was only free for the first three hours of arriving), I found us speeding down the before mentioned highway and back to our homey little apartment. I was surprised Alice was able to fit all of the shopping bags in the tiny little space her Turbo provided.

I help her bring them up, all the while listening to her plan my entire work wardrobe for the week, inwardly groaning at her and her enthusiasm. As we moved slowly to our apartment, up the elevator and through the long corridor, we pass by an open doored apartment 11, a woman supervising painters near the living room door. She had waving auburn curls, and soft rounded motherly type features, though she didn't look old enough to be mothering children. Alice moved forward bags rustling, to welcome her to our apartment building.

"Hi there! Welcome to the building."

The woman turned to look at us fully to smile at us. Definitely a mother type.

"I'm Alice and this is Bella, we're roomies from apartment 17."

She pushed her hand forward before faltering, realizing that neither of us wouldn't be able to take her hand, and laughing lightly. Her laugh was so infectious that we found ourselves laughing along with her. I watched as the painters took a small break, throwing nervous glances towards the woman. She must be a back breaker, I mused to myself. She tucked her hand back at her side.

"Well, I'm Esme. Thank you for your welcome, but I won't be living here. Actually one of my sons will be living here." She paused. "Well the others may come around every now and then to crash and steal his food." Esme said smiling as she thought fondly of them.

"Sons!" My roommate exclaimed beside me sounding thoroughly shocked, voicing my thoughts. "But you look so young! You couldn't possibly have any sons old enough to live here." I nod agreeing.

She laughed again lightheartedly, obviously not offended. "I supposed I should've specified. One of my adoptive sons. I found out very early on in life, that I wasn't able to have children after my first baby died of sudden infant death syndrome. So my husband and I decided to adopt, and well, I couldn't help but be drawn to my boys."

All of our eyes watered at the voiced memory, and this caused Alice to drop the bags hanging in her arms and hands and pull her into a comforting hug. The hug reminded me of one of the reasons why I was able to get along so well with my best friend. She was able to take any situation into her hands and go along with it comfortably. Strangers or not. That trait of hers, helped greatly when I created my own awkward social situations. They pulled away and she gently patted my friend's shoulder in thanks, Alice looking up at her.

"Thank you dear. I hope that you'll be able to be there for my son when he comes to live here." I didn't miss the slight change of her face. It almost looked sly.

Alice beamed at her. "Of course! When will he be moving in Esme? The whole building has been buzzing with anticipation to when the apartment will be moved into! Oh! Does he have a car?"

I stood there listening to them chat about the moving plans, adding a little every now and then and soon after inviting Esme to come visit us anytime for food or just to talk, we finally made it to our apartment, dropping the bags on the floor and wondered aloud about what kind of person would be moving in a few doors away from us.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_ It feels a bit rushed at the end, but I only needed to get Esme in there for a short part. This is more like an add on chapter – which introduces info, so it's not very exciting (in my opinion), the next one should be move the plot along a bit.

I'll be focusing a bit more on my other stories – Second Chances and a REEEALLLY long WIP fic (that I haven't put up yet, but am totally loving as it's a really fresh story in my mind.) BUT! Hopefully, I'll have the third chapter of this fic out in two or three weeks? Maybe earlier. ;) I think I need a Beta for my grammar. :ponders: Anddd I very much doubt my other chapters won't be as long as these two -- unless I have the time and patience.


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